Great Music with Only One String
Diddly Bo – Seasick Steve (LWJH S35E05)
Music should be fun. Really, anybody who wants to make music should be capable of doing so. Unfortunately we are taught that, in order to make music, you need to study music tablature, learn scales and chords, spend money on expensive musical instruments and practice loads. But this is far from the truth.
Have you ever see any African tribes people dancing to drums? The drummers have never studied at music college. They obviously can’t read music and wouldn’t know a scale or chord if it hit them on the head. But they’re having a good time. Making music on simple, home made instruments like drums and rattles is what music making is all about.
The Berimbau is a Brazilian instrument that uses only one string that has African roots. Its not surprising to note that the instrument looks like a bow that might be used for hunting. Now this simple instrument is the precursor to pretty much all forms of stringed instrument including guitars, harps and even pianos.
You may have already heard or seen a Diddley Bow. This is a very simple and easily made African American one stringed folk instrument. These might be made from nothing more than a plank of wood with a length of wire stretched from end to end. The string is tensioned with something uses as a bridge and the pitch is varied by fretting the string with a piece of bone, glass or maybe a knife or some other form of slide.
One notable Diddley bow player, Lonnie Pitchford, would make his Diddley Bows by attaching a wire to a vertical support beam on the front porch of his house. Making simple diddley bows by attaching a wire to the side of a house or shack was a common way that poor share croppers and field workers would make instruments in the Mississippi Delta region.
The blues is rooted in simple folk instruments like the diddley bo. Many of the early blues greats got their start in the 1920s and 1930s by playing Diddley Bows. One modern day exponent of this simple instrument is Seasick Steve. So if you want a bit of fun with a simple one string folk instrument why not make yourself a Diddley Bow today.